A Miracle, a Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers

"A Miracle, A Universe" by Lawrence Weschler is a powerful narrative of struggle. Brazil was once ruled by a dictatorship, torture was rampant but democracy found its way to the people. With a new government, Brazil's formerly tortured victims felt they needed for social justice for the crimes committed against them. Weschler weaves interviews, his own experiences, and story together to describe the movement to publish the detailed records of torture brutally followed by the toppled military regime. As a writer, the author's style comes through the pages with clarity. Establishing a style that is consistent and allows the reader to understand his message. The dialogue he uses is blended fluidly throughout almost every page. It helps to move the plot forward by providing factual information in a more tangible way. By presenting people's voices, he creates a reality and a connection to their experiences. In the end, these innocent people find peace and release of their anger towards their abusers. With the wide spread acceptance of their account, the author further continues his analysis with the example of Uruguay's failed attempt to bring about justice. Uruguay's petition campaign, although put forward with petition by activists, and torture victims, would only end in unsuccessful disappointment. Utilizing probing insight, Weschler asks thought-provoking questions that challenges the reader to question their own beliefs. The use of repetition solidifies Weschler's style. His use of hyphens, italics, and transitions all come together to keep the reader on track. The repetition creates a lack of confusion. This way the information comes across clearly. Using a sentence structure creates a foundation for the way he presents his novel. Long sentences are used to give the reader ample amounts of information and link ideas together. The style is constant and his voice as a writer is strong and his message for acknowledgement is loudly heard. The accounts bring light from the darkness and exposes the horrors of torture, the torturers, and the need for acknowledgement.Together the content and style work to portray the detailed trials of procuring justice. Bringing about acknowledgement becomes the key to overcoming torture. With the government, society, and the world seeing the pain and understanding the wrongs committed, the victims rise above their experiences and restore their integrity. The author's voice adds realness to the content, creating connection. His style is unwavering. Overall, this novel sheds light on a topic once hidden in secrecy. His words inspire compassion and the need to prevent these types of injustices from occurring again.

On March 15, 1979, General João Baptista Figuereido assumed power as the fifth military president of Brazil and extended an amnesty for all political crimes, both by state security agents and by opponents to the regime. While this amnesty assured there would be no trials for human rights abusers, ironically, it provided an opportunity for the most serious movement to challenge the practice of torture by the regime itself, that of the Brasil Nunca Mais project. It is the story of this project that Lawrence Weschler narrates in the first half of this book. Weschler explains how, during a very limited period of access, the members of the Brasil Nunca Mais project team were able to photocopy the carefully catalogued archives of the Supreme Military Court in order to make them public to the world. They filled a void in Brazil in taking up activities that the state never would- mainly that of telling the truth about this dark period in Brazilian history. Of course, the resulting report, Brasil Nunca Mais, speaks for itself. But Weschler's account of how it came to be is illuminating and as relevant today as when it was first published. It is particularly poignant that only recently, in November of 2005, did the Brazilian government move to declassify dictatorship-era files. Perhaps this signals that the Brazilian government is willing to fully engage with the legacies of the dictatorship, but for the time being Weschler's book offers one of the few windows on this shameful past.The section on Uruguay is also thoroughly engaging and recounts all the anxieties of a citizen-initiated campaign to bring former torturers to justice. Weschler's skillful eyewitness accounts make the reader feel as if the petition drive were happening right now, as opposed to two decades ago.A Miracle, A Universe is a thoroughly well-researched and thoughtful contribution to general human rights literature and should be read by anyone with an interest in social movements and human rights activism, not just those with an interest in Latin America.

If your university class requires this book, you can probably get a away with out it, I never used it and got a great grade, but I did make money when I sold the book to the university